Grounded Nationalisms: A Sociological Analysis has become an instant classic in nationalism studi... more Grounded Nationalisms: A Sociological Analysis has become an instant classic in nationalism studies. In just over 300 pages, Siniša Malešević, one of the world’s leading nationalism scholars, has constructed a rich treatise on some of the central questions of our day: How should we think about nationalism? What is the future of nationalism? And what accounts for the ubiquity of national identities and national identification long after the so-called Age of Nationalism ended?
The Politics of National minority Participation in Post-Communist Europe, 2019
@inbook {,. title = {The roma of Central and Eastern Europe : constructing a stateless nation},. ... more @inbook {,. title = {The roma of Central and Eastern Europe : constructing a stateless nation},. booktitle = {The politics of national minority participation in post-communist Europe : state-building, democracy, and ethnic mobilization},. year = {2000},. ...
This paper seeks to address a significant gap in the current nationalist literature that has insu... more This paper seeks to address a significant gap in the current nationalist literature that has insufficiently examined the conditions under which an ethnic group or region will radicalise or, conversely, moderate its demands against the state centre. This study introduces a bargaining model to explore the process by which ethnic groups are mobilised and then de-mobilised, such that the extremity of their demands shift over time. Two arguments are given here. First, a group's structural characteristics (including its size and compactness) define the upper-limits of goals that groups are capable of pursuing against the centre. Second, the extremity of these claims is a joint function of: (1) the group's expected political or economic benefits of exercising its 'exit option' (the independent variable), and (2), the bargaining power and activities of a group's lobby state or organisation (the intervening variable). In putting forth this argument, I hope to explain how and why an ethnic group's demands can shift from extreme goals, such as broad territorial autonomy, to very moderate goals, such as affirmative action policies, and vice versa. Finally, this study suggests ways in which international organisations may intervene to ameliorate the intensity of ethnic conflict.
Abstract This essay argues that the research on ethnic conflict has for too long suffered from si... more Abstract This essay argues that the research on ethnic conflict has for too long suffered from significant disciplinary divides among sociologists, historians, political scientists, anthropologists, geologists, and economists—these divides bring attention to underemphasized factors, but can also foster inattention to the influence of factors that fall outside of the specific purview of one’s field. Even within political science, there is a divide between comparativists’ focus on state-level factors and international relations scholars’ work on transnational dimensions. The past two decades have seen important cross-fertilization due to numerous projects that seek to bridge methodological and disciplinary boundaries that hamper fuller understanding of the causes and solutions of ethnic conflict. Unfortunately, there remains a strong statist bias in the field, which is, however, being challenged by a newer generation of scholars who are focusing on conflict processes above, below, and beyond the state.
This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politi... more This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. Please check back later for the full article.In their seminal study Resort to Arms, Small and Singer defined a civil war as “any armed conflict that involves (a) military action internal to the metropole, (b) the active participation of the national government, and (c) effective resistance by both sides.” Internationalized civil war is a newer classification, denoting a conflict involving organized violence on two or more sides within a sovereign state, in which foreign elements play a role in instigating, prolonging, or exacerbating the struggle. Under Small and Singer’s concept of civil wars, an internationalized civil war is one in which a “system member” intervenes in a sub-state conflict involving organized violence. Although Singer and Small conceived system members narrowly, as external sovereign states engaged in military intervention in the civil war in question, the definit...
This article develops a general theory of bargaining between a minority, its host state, and outs... more This article develops a general theory of bargaining between a minority, its host state, and outside lobby actor to explain why minorities shift their demands from affirmative action to cultural autonomy to secessionism and back, often in the absence of clear economic or security incentives. This paper uses a simple game tree model to show that if a minority believes that it enjoys significant support from a powerful national homeland or other external actor, it radicalized its demands against the host state, even if the center has credibly committed to protect minority rights. Conversely, if a minority believes that it enjoys no external support, then it will accommodate the host state, even in the presence of significant majority repression. As a general theory of claim-making, this model challenges structural theories of demands that rely on static economic differences or historical grievances to explain claim-making. It also challenges security dilemma arguments that hold that minority radicalization is mainly a function of ethnic fears. The model's hypotheses are tested using longitudinal analysis of Hungarians in Vojvodina during the 1990s, as the Yugoslav dog that ''barked but did not bite.'' Careful examination of claim-making in this case demonstrates the superior explanatory power of the ethnic bargaining model as compared with dominant theories of minority mobilization in the literature.
This paper argues that the theory of ethnic partition, first formally articulated in the early 19... more This paper argues that the theory of ethnic partition, first formally articulated in the early 1990s, is plagued by flawed premises and weak empirical support. Partition theory is based on the assumption that ethnic civil wars create such intense fears and insecurities at the sub-state level that the warring sides will no longer be able to coexist in a common society. Owing to the intractable nature of this so-called ethnic security dilemma, the combatant groups will only agree to disarm once they are safely separated into defensible state-like territories. This paper argues that the security dilemma is a poor heuristic for explaining the dynamics of protracted sectarian conflicts. As a result, partition theorists underestimate the potential for ethnic reintegration, offer political cover for ethnic cleansers, and prescribe more extreme solutions to ethnic war than are actually warranted. Having demonstrated the flawed assumptions upon which partition theory is based, the paper concludes by outlining possible reasons for the theory's persistence despite its faulty underpinnings.
Grounded Nationalisms: A Sociological Analysis has become an instant classic in nationalism studi... more Grounded Nationalisms: A Sociological Analysis has become an instant classic in nationalism studies. In just over 300 pages, Siniša Malešević, one of the world’s leading nationalism scholars, has constructed a rich treatise on some of the central questions of our day: How should we think about nationalism? What is the future of nationalism? And what accounts for the ubiquity of national identities and national identification long after the so-called Age of Nationalism ended?
The Politics of National minority Participation in Post-Communist Europe, 2019
@inbook {,. title = {The roma of Central and Eastern Europe : constructing a stateless nation},. ... more @inbook {,. title = {The roma of Central and Eastern Europe : constructing a stateless nation},. booktitle = {The politics of national minority participation in post-communist Europe : state-building, democracy, and ethnic mobilization},. year = {2000},. ...
This paper seeks to address a significant gap in the current nationalist literature that has insu... more This paper seeks to address a significant gap in the current nationalist literature that has insufficiently examined the conditions under which an ethnic group or region will radicalise or, conversely, moderate its demands against the state centre. This study introduces a bargaining model to explore the process by which ethnic groups are mobilised and then de-mobilised, such that the extremity of their demands shift over time. Two arguments are given here. First, a group's structural characteristics (including its size and compactness) define the upper-limits of goals that groups are capable of pursuing against the centre. Second, the extremity of these claims is a joint function of: (1) the group's expected political or economic benefits of exercising its 'exit option' (the independent variable), and (2), the bargaining power and activities of a group's lobby state or organisation (the intervening variable). In putting forth this argument, I hope to explain how and why an ethnic group's demands can shift from extreme goals, such as broad territorial autonomy, to very moderate goals, such as affirmative action policies, and vice versa. Finally, this study suggests ways in which international organisations may intervene to ameliorate the intensity of ethnic conflict.
Abstract This essay argues that the research on ethnic conflict has for too long suffered from si... more Abstract This essay argues that the research on ethnic conflict has for too long suffered from significant disciplinary divides among sociologists, historians, political scientists, anthropologists, geologists, and economists—these divides bring attention to underemphasized factors, but can also foster inattention to the influence of factors that fall outside of the specific purview of one’s field. Even within political science, there is a divide between comparativists’ focus on state-level factors and international relations scholars’ work on transnational dimensions. The past two decades have seen important cross-fertilization due to numerous projects that seek to bridge methodological and disciplinary boundaries that hamper fuller understanding of the causes and solutions of ethnic conflict. Unfortunately, there remains a strong statist bias in the field, which is, however, being challenged by a newer generation of scholars who are focusing on conflict processes above, below, and beyond the state.
This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politi... more This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. Please check back later for the full article.In their seminal study Resort to Arms, Small and Singer defined a civil war as “any armed conflict that involves (a) military action internal to the metropole, (b) the active participation of the national government, and (c) effective resistance by both sides.” Internationalized civil war is a newer classification, denoting a conflict involving organized violence on two or more sides within a sovereign state, in which foreign elements play a role in instigating, prolonging, or exacerbating the struggle. Under Small and Singer’s concept of civil wars, an internationalized civil war is one in which a “system member” intervenes in a sub-state conflict involving organized violence. Although Singer and Small conceived system members narrowly, as external sovereign states engaged in military intervention in the civil war in question, the definit...
This article develops a general theory of bargaining between a minority, its host state, and outs... more This article develops a general theory of bargaining between a minority, its host state, and outside lobby actor to explain why minorities shift their demands from affirmative action to cultural autonomy to secessionism and back, often in the absence of clear economic or security incentives. This paper uses a simple game tree model to show that if a minority believes that it enjoys significant support from a powerful national homeland or other external actor, it radicalized its demands against the host state, even if the center has credibly committed to protect minority rights. Conversely, if a minority believes that it enjoys no external support, then it will accommodate the host state, even in the presence of significant majority repression. As a general theory of claim-making, this model challenges structural theories of demands that rely on static economic differences or historical grievances to explain claim-making. It also challenges security dilemma arguments that hold that minority radicalization is mainly a function of ethnic fears. The model's hypotheses are tested using longitudinal analysis of Hungarians in Vojvodina during the 1990s, as the Yugoslav dog that ''barked but did not bite.'' Careful examination of claim-making in this case demonstrates the superior explanatory power of the ethnic bargaining model as compared with dominant theories of minority mobilization in the literature.
This paper argues that the theory of ethnic partition, first formally articulated in the early 19... more This paper argues that the theory of ethnic partition, first formally articulated in the early 1990s, is plagued by flawed premises and weak empirical support. Partition theory is based on the assumption that ethnic civil wars create such intense fears and insecurities at the sub-state level that the warring sides will no longer be able to coexist in a common society. Owing to the intractable nature of this so-called ethnic security dilemma, the combatant groups will only agree to disarm once they are safely separated into defensible state-like territories. This paper argues that the security dilemma is a poor heuristic for explaining the dynamics of protracted sectarian conflicts. As a result, partition theorists underestimate the potential for ethnic reintegration, offer political cover for ethnic cleansers, and prescribe more extreme solutions to ethnic war than are actually warranted. Having demonstrated the flawed assumptions upon which partition theory is based, the paper concludes by outlining possible reasons for the theory's persistence despite its faulty underpinnings.
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